snom announces a pair of new SIP phones

German purveyor of IP phones and phone systems, snom technology AG, today announced the release of two new SIP telephones that, according to regional channel manager Tommy Lee, pretty much fill the existing gaps in the company's telephone product linein terms of features and price points that customers have talked about.

The new models, the 720 and 760 straddle the price points of the earliest snom phones, the relatively economical 3xx series and the sleeker, high-end 8xx phones, released about 15 months ago.

Like all previous snom models, they feature elements for which the company is well known in the industry: hold, transfer, and other standard PBX functions andmost notablya wealth of programmable buttons that can be set up for one-touch dialing to internal extensions or external phone number, and which, within the home network, also show the phone presence of those the buttons are programmed to dial.

They also feature the elegant styling and upright posture that were first introduced in the 8xx series, as well as gigabit Ethernet switching for network efficiency. Also, like the 8xx models, both provide a USB port that, among other things, allows the user to plug in a Wi-Fi adptor and operate the phone without a wired network connection.

Unlike any previous snom phones, the 7xx models feature Bluetooth networking for user convenience. "A lot of the newer Bluetooth headsets can register both to the mobile phone and to another device," Lee told Enterprise VoIPplanet in a recent pre-release interview "juggle between multiple Bluetooth accounts."

Both are high-quality speakerphones, and both support HD voiceas well as providing advanced SIP and VXML functionality for multi-application support and integration. They have built-in clocks with automatic daylight-savings adjustment, and they feature internal phone books that support up to 1,000 entries.

What distinguishes the two 7xx models is the choice between a smallish (4-line) monochrome screen and 18 configurable buttons (the 720) and a larger color screen that can display caller images and 12 buttons (the 760). The 760 also features a second USB port"to bring on some more advanced functionality in the future," according to Lee.

Designed with the needs of small and medium-size business in mind, the 720 carries an SRP of $219 and the 760 $329.